Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/239

Rh … but has laid the foundation of infinite mischief", and that at the next session a move might be expected to repeal the law establishing the Supreme Court; another considered the ultimate object to be the abolition of the "ill-fated Supreme Court which Americans had fondly hoped would continue for ages the guardian of public liberty, the source of National prosperity"; another announced "the alarming destruction of the great charter of our National existence"; another termed it "the death warrant of the Constitution." Probably the most extraordinary prophecy of disaster from the passage of this legislation appeared in a letter from a Washington correspondent of the Gazette of the United States, who wrote: "The public mind is highly agitated here. The holders of city lots seem much alarmed. Not a lot had been sold for many days, and the prospect of a dependent Judiciary and of Judges who are to be the creatures and puppets of the Virginia party prevents the sale of landed property here. Many of the sober-minded men of Virginia are endeavoring to sell their lands and slaves and contemplate moving to New England. From the violation of the Constitution, disunion, they think, must ensue; and when it shall, they mean to be on the safe side of the boundary.... The men who govern in these evil times are full of vengeance. They were never the friends of the National Constitution and it will meet with no mercy at their hands." Similar exaggerated views were expressed by the leading statesmen of the Federalist party. "It is an event," wrote James A. Bayard, "which cannot be too much lamented. It establishes a principle fraught with the worst consequences under such governments as exist in the United States. The independence of the judicial power is prostrated. A Judge, instead of holding